Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has requested records and documents from Kansas City's X account after Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker's city of residence was revealed in a post from the account last week.
Earlier this month, Butker, a Catholic, delivered a pro-Christian commencement speech at Benedictine College's graduation ceremony. The speech panned President Joe Biden, the LGBTQ community, and encouraged graduating women to embrace their role as a “homemaker.” Butker later faced intense backlash for the content of his speech.
Last Wednesday, the official X account for Kansas City appeared to doxx Butker's city of residence in a post to the platform which was later deleted.
“We apologize for our previous tweet. It was shared in error,” the team apologized Wednesday evening. We apologies for our previous tweet. It was shared in error.
— Kansas City (@KansasCity) May 16, 2024
The following day, AG Bailey demanded accountability over Butker's doxxing, noting the incident appeared to be directly in response to Butker's commencement speech.
"I will enforce the Missouri Human Rights Act to ensure Missourians are not targeted for their free exercise of religion," he wrote to X.
On Tuesday, Bailey announced his effort to investigate the incident was "moving forward undeterred." We're moving forward undeterred. https://t.co/1hRr51Jv6d
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) May 21, 2024
Bailey said he was a lifelong Kansas City Chiefs fan, and fan of Butker, during a Wednesday interview with OutKick's Charly Arnolt.
"At the end of the day, I support his right to free expression of religion," Bailey said. "If you listen to what he said and you actually drill down on the words he used – this is a man of Catholic faith, speaking to a Catholic audience at a Catholic university, expressing his sincerely held religious beliefs."
The Missouri AG referred to Butker's speech as "prophetic" for suggesting left-wing activists sought to drive Christianity from the public sphere.
"That has been exactly what has happened in retalliation for his speech," he said. "At the end of the day, this free expression of religion is protected by the First Amendment, and the Missouri Human Rights Act here in the state of Missouri that prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion."
Bailey said he would always defend athletes and others who expressed religious beliefs.
"We have demanded certain records from the city related to their management of that social media account that doxed Harrison Butker in retaliation for his free expression of religious beliefs," Bailey told Arnolt. "Let’s paint this with the proper brush – that is government retaliating against an individual for the expression of their sincerely held religious beliefs. That could not be more of a clear case of a violation of his constitutional freedoms and the Missouri Human Rights Act."
Bailey said Kansas City's X post was direct government retaliation against an individual for expressing sincerely held religious beliefs.
"I think Harrison Butker has a cause of action against the city," Bailey said, insisting he intended to hold the city accountable for the post. "I'm deeply concerned that they don't have sufficient controls in place to prevent government from being weaponized to violate an individual's human rights."
Bailey also threw criticism toward Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas for his response to the incident.
"The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account," Lucas wrote of the incident. "The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels." A message appeared earlier this evening from a City public account.
The message was clearly inappropriate for a public account. The City has correctly apologized for the error, will review account access, and ensure nothing like it is shared in the future from public channels.
— Mayor Q (@QuintonLucasKC) May 16, 2024
Mayor Lucas went on to claim Kansas City employees had been subjected to harassment, bullying, and intimidation in response to the post.
"He goes on the offensive and fires a letter off to my office saying that somehow I'm stoking the flames of racial discord by enforcing a statute that prohibits racial discrimination," Bailey said. "This is the same man who in his apology ... said the buck stops with him."
"If the buck stops with him, why is he playing the race card and blaming me?" Bailey asked.
"Anyone who was involved in this terrible decision to retaliate against Harrison Butker should be fired and terminated immediately," he added.
